Robotic Assisted Colorectal Surgery

A robot is generally considered as a physical machine which can move around, operate a mechanical limb and exhibit intelligent and autonomous behavior in public. However, a surgical robot is not like the common robots which have the ability of autonomous action. A surgical robot is a collection of manipulators which just follow the surgeon’s hand motions. The manipulators of a surgical robot receive a digitalized signal from the computer which interfaces the surgeon’s hand motions with robotic manipulators. These are the important characteristics of a surgical robot, and we can consider it as a developed laparoscopic surgical instrument. Conversely, many patients think that a surgical robot as a robotic surgeon who can perform an operation with its own intelligence. The present surgical robot is just a servant. Thus, we have to understand the surgical robot from this concept. The whole robotic procedure is a robotic assisted procedure and the master surgeon decides the whole surgical procedure and performs the operation. The current surgical robot just helps the surgeon with its advanced technology during the surgical procedure. The first surgical robot was the Automated Endoscopic System for Optimal Positioning (AESOP) (Computer Motion, Santa Barbara, CA, USA). In 1994, AESOP was approved for clinical use as a robotic camera holder by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). After that, the Zeus surgical system was invented. However, the Zeus surgical system was approved by the FDA for use only as a surgical assistant. The da Vinci® robotic system (Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA) is currently the most popular surgical robotic system. Thus, the manuscript is written based on the da Vinci® robotic system.